Adelaide United captain Jon McKain has urged his team to build on the momentum they have recently gathered when they take on the Wellington Phoenix at Eden Park on Saturday.
After suffering back-to-back defeats to Sydney FC and Brisbane Roar, the Reds fought hard for a point against Melbourne Heart before recording their second win of the season with a 2-1 victory over Gold Coast United last Friday night at Hindmarsh Stadium.
McKain believes it is vital Adelaide continue their mini-resurgence and accept nothing less than three points against a Phoenix side full of confidence following their 1-1 draw with league leaders Brisbane last Sunday.
“We are going there (Auckland) to win. We’ve had a draw and win in the last two games and we need to build on the momentum,” McKain said.
“Obviously it depends on what happens in the game but we are going out there for three points.”
“We need to build up some momentum, you see how tight the A-League it is, and put some consistency and results back-to-back.”
The Reds travel to Auckland to face Wellington at the historic Eden Park venue, home of the New Zealand All-backs, in what will be the first game of football to be played at the stadium since 1988.
A depleted Adelaide will be without the services of Milan Susak, Sergio van Dijk, Evgeniy Levchenko and Andy Slory who are missing through injury, while young guns Daniel Mullen and Mark Birighitti are absent representing the Olyroos in the Middle East for Australia’s next bout of Olympic qualifiers.
The Phoenix on the other hand have almost a full strength side to chose from and will also be looking to carry on momentum from the strong result they achieved against the Roar – a notion not lost on McKain.
“We know from the Phoenix how they’re going to play, they are fighting team, who are going to put everything on the line,” McKain said.
“It might not be pretty at times but you know they are going to be committed … they showed that last week against Brisbane.”
“They have got a lot of hard working players and a bit of quality out wide where they can isolate you one on one and cause you trouble.”
Despite the threat the New Zealand side pose, McKain, who will come up against his former side for the first time since his departure in 2010, said the Reds would be well versed on what to expect thanks to the inside information of former Phoenix assistant coach, now Adelaide coach Rini Coolen’s right-hand man, Luciano Trani.
“I think Luci (Luciano Trania) and Rini will have their videos of what they’ve (Wellington) done and that will give us a good in-depth analysis of where to look out for them,” McKain said.
“We know what they’re going to do hopefully and it’s up to us to play our way.”
